The Country Pottery- Build a Extruder Gun

A extruder is useful for making fast coils of clay, handles, and decorative parts. most extruders come in two types, a wall mount (instructable in progress) and todays project, a easy and simple Clay Gun.

insers the prepared tube, fill with soft clay, and crank the handle.... just like a plydough machine.... on;ly more useful.....

this clay gun cost under 10$ and makes enough tubes for 3 diffrent die heads, though the parts are cheap enohugh to make a bunch.

the parts:

you will need:

a caulk gun frame- I picked up this one for 4.95 at the local hardware store- this is a 13 inch gun, designed to use the "regular" sized tubes of glue and caulk

a length of 1 1/2 inch schedule 40 PVC Pipe, this peice is 5 foot long and cost $2.30

1 1/2 inch caps to use as die heads i bout 4 at 70 cents a peice

1 1/2 inch test cap this was 35 cents for 2.

you will also need a marker, a hacksaw with a sharp blade and a mesuring device.

Measuring the Tube

measure the pipe from one end and cut off a 8 inch peice

Fit the Die Cap

drive one of the caps onto the pipe. this one ive cut 3 holes in the cap with a knife. I could have gotten cleaner results with a drill bit.

keep the holes smaller than about 1 inch in diameter, (YMMV). this pattern makes a rope if you twist the clay as it extrudes...

Test Cap Plunger Seal

the test cap will be the back seal for the gun piston. trim off the outer flange so you only have a cup shaped peice.

add a glob of glue (liquid nails) and glue to the piston head of the caulk frame.

let dry for a hour or so.

Finished!

you make have to trim the caps or pipe to make fit.. a sanding block or a rasp works well for this.

Finished- to load the gun, roll a ball of clay between your hand to make a 1 inch rope. insert the rope into the sylinder, and load 'er up!

start sqeezin!

this gun is also useful if you want to extrude materials you cant get in tubes- like stucco or plaster of paris.. the gun tubes are cheap enough to be disposable....

to clean, just pop off the caps and wash out, or just chuck it into a bucket of water until its ready to be used again...

See my other Instrucatables,
Build a country Kickwheel,
and
Build a country Wedging table